(The Mercury Mystique is, in truth, a more conservative version of
its Ford sibling, the Contour. As usual, the Ford version gets most of
the publicity, says Matt Hagin. His dad Bob agrees and says that he
likes the Mercury version better, possibly for sentimental reasons.)

MATT - Although the '97 Mercury Mystique is into its third year of
production and there's hardly anything new, it proves the old saying
that it's folly to try to fix something that isn't broken. Straight out
of the box, it was a very neat machine and one that had a definite
sporting flair to it. This feeling may come from the fact that the
Mystique and its brother, the Ford Contour, use continental technology.
The major design factors were developed by Ford of Europe and this may
be why the cars have a European "feel" to them.

BOB - It's sure an improvement over its predecessor, the Topaz. But
in all honesty, we can't knock the Topaz too much since it was brought
out in '83 and stuck around as a rolling household appliance for almost
10 years. It was an uninteresting, but reliable workhorse. This Mystique
is another story, however. Although it's still hung on MacPherson struts
up front, it uses a neat four-link rear suspension with coil springs on
the shock struts. Its geometry is designed with a small amount of
built-in rear wheel steering to neutralize some of the high-speed
understeer. There's a pair of sway bars front and rear, but they put a
thinner one on the Mystique that carries the little four-banger engine.

MATT - You really shouldn't turn up your nose at the four-cylinder
engine that's standard in the Mystique, Dad. It's a twin-cam unit with
four valves per cylinder that puts out 125 horsepower from only 121
cubic inches. But you're right in that it suffers by comparison to the
V6. That engine is aluminum and develops another 45 ponies and will pull
the 2800-pound Mystique to 60 MPH in just over nine seconds.
Unfortunately, the only version we could test out here was carrying an
automatic transmission and I can tell you from experience that the
stick-shift version is noticeably quicker. A few months ago, Bridgestone
Tire and Rubber Company used a bunch of Mystiques at a tire-testing
demonstration I participated in and the five-speed is lots better.

BOB - The fact that the four-cylinder version of the Mystique
carries drum brakes in back is something of a mystery to me. If I was
going for any new car, having the best possible brakes, as well as an
anti-skid system would be a top priority, although ABS is $570 extra on
the Mystique. I've learned over the years that a few less feet of
braking distance can make the difference between a close call and a
bashed grille. I'd also recommend the traction control system that our
LS version carried, which works well on slippery pavement. Incidentally,
the grille and front-end treatment on the Mystique is more conservative
than the Ford version, which describes me perfectly.

MATT - Most of the interior controls are easy to use, Dad, but
there's a couple of things I don't like about the inside. Three adults
in back really crowd things and there's no way to adjust the front seat
height unless the car has power seats, according to the catalog. Our car
had power seats, but the controls were hard to reach. And because it's
behind the steering wheel, the door lock switch is also hard to reach
also. Leather upholstery is nice, too, but pricey at almost $600. And I
know that an automatic isn't everybody's choice, but I can't imagine
that it costs an extra $815 over the manual. I suppose that's the price
you have to pay for doing less work while driving. A tachometer comes as
standard equipment on our LS version but it's totally useless with the
automatic transmission since the shift points are predetermined and you
can't over-rev the engine anyway. One problem I had was I couldn't make
the child's car seat fit in the middle of the rear seat securely.

BOB - Matt, you're getting to sound more like me all the time. It
must be your newfound sense of family responsibility. But I have a
sentimental attachment to Mercurys due to the fact that I wrecked your
uncle's '42 coupe when I was learning to drive.